. . .

varric's opinion should depend on whether hawke was pro-mage or pro-templar. pro-mage hawke's varric should also refuse to say anything negative about cullen until you have high approval, because he is also a prisoner here and what is he, an idiot?

cole should say, out loud, with his mouth, that he has compassion for cullen and understands his fears and etc. but any time theyre in a room together cole should immediately get, like, Spirit Freakout Weird, and then they need to be separated. because cole can't cope with the impressions hes getting of mages being kidnapped and harrowed and made tranquil and killed.

sera should hate him outright. are you kidding. her whole bit is she's anti-authoritarian and sets herself Against people who wield institutional power & who have the power and inclination to commit to actions with disproportionate effects on the marginalised and the vulnerable. and cullen's career trajectory has been templar -> knight captain in city where templars more or less run the show -> (acting) knight commander, same city -> commander of religious army. she should be Loud and Insensitive about it

vivienne should not be able to forget that he was knight captain in kirkwall during the escalation of violence against mages culminating in the chantry explosion and (botched?) annulment. she's a mage who created for herself through luck and skill and daring an incredibly precarious position of influence, she knows the templars probably resent her enormously; she's the leader of the loyalist mages; and how can she look at him without thinking of what he's been part of, and wondering what it will take for him to turn on her? and conversely, cullen might not be part of the templar order anymore, but he absolutely believes that the templars should, in some form, exist— he's spent two games as a Zealot. he should have feelings about basically the most politically prominent mage in the south making moves towards becoming divine. feelings about mages in "real" politics, not just circle politics. can anybody hear me. also vivienne should not ever say this out loud u should only be able to tell by comparing how she speaks to him with how she speaks to characters she feels actively warm to but in a vacuum it's not obvious and she should only be willing to tell You w/ high approval

dorian is a tevinter altus. he is a necromancer. per the orlesian chantry hes basically already a blood mage even though by his definition he is Not. cullen should hate him on principle — a product of a nation in which mages aren't just free but (supposedly universally) revered, in which mages keep slaves and practice blood magic, The Big Scary That The Orlesian Circles Rely On As Evidence Of What Happens When You Let Mages Be People. and conversely— dorian comes from tevinter! to him, a templar is the dog of the wealthy ruling class! and to be honest southern templars are not better, they just serve different masters... and he of all people should feel that a templar's ~power over mages~ is basically just a cultural construct. like. we have seen that when mages Genuinely fight back, templars start dropping immediately. nobody is more well-positioned to know this and disdain southern templars' skills and power than dorian, who did not grow up with the culturally ingrained fear and awe of them that southern circle mages did. THEY SHOULD GET INTO IT. and he should take many opportunities to say it also

Surana x Loghain 💙

And then you get into it and yeah he is staid and uptight as hell, but he's also a nerd none of the Primarchs particularly like? People in the books are like "shut up, Roboute, don't you have some homework to do somewhere" and he goes "Actually yes thank you for reminding me".

He'll try to be funny but then it doesn't land.

When Ferrus Manus, one of the only guys MORE staid and stoic than him, finds out from Fulgrim that Guilliman admires him greatly, he responds "It is not reciprocated"

They think he's a lame annoying doopfuck. I don't think he has a single friend amongst his brothers beyond Sanguinius and that's because Sanguinius is your default friend. He comes included when you're born as a Primarch.

With the Lion, he's agonizing over how perfectly organized his legion is, it makes him insecure. It's like watching the straight A+ honor roll student find out his classmate got an A++ and then laying his head down on his desk in class to hide the fact he's trying not to cry.

He's a dork. It's kind of great. To have this guy who looks like a male power fantasy, but he's the least fuckable man in the galaxy. If you tried to seduce him, he'd go "The color of your hair reminds me of a wheat field on a warm summer day. I need to configurate grain transport logistics. I have to go"

Had an idea. Noted it was June. Did the thing. It’s available on stuff over on redbubble if you want it.

Happy Pride!